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The Moral Bumble of the Grumble

 

 

Grumbling is everywhere and probably because it is one of those habits that often gets a pass.  I mean, when you think about it, grumblers could be characterized as perceptive people.  They are quick to recognize problems and quick to air why those problems are problematic.   You can’t really deny there are problems.  This is a broken world after all.  Sin really has ravaged so much and continues its painful work up to this present day.  But grumbling is more than just recognizing sin.  God recognizes sin and he is not a grumbler.  Grumbling is ungodly, and is therefore problematic.  So here is a question for you.  Do grumblers grumble about their grumbling?  It would seem if such a thing were tried it would tear open a hypocritical black hole and suck them in.  No, grumblers don’t grumble about grumbling because grumbling is what happens when there is a blindness. Grumbling about grumbling would be a kind of insightful clarity that isn’t going to happen.  It is like an eye trying to see itself.  It is not going to happen.   Grumblers see, but they don’t see.  They see problems, but they don’t see the inner problem, nor the ultimate realities above and beyond the problems.  

What are Grumblers are blind to?

  • Grumbling is the blindness that we should be thankful in everything

1 Thessalonians 5:18 says “in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  This is a command, but if this command was all we had we would not be able to obey it.  This command assumes you know what you are giving thanks for in everything.   God’s word is replete with truths and realities that exist in every problem.   They are grand and glorious realities.  Such realities include how God is providentially directing every problem (Matthew 10:29), God is producing godly character in you through problems (Romans 5:3-4; James 1:2-3), and God is advancing the gospel through problems (Philippians 1:12).  These examples, and many more, are reasons to be thankful.   Some of the best photographs are those that have a single feature in sharp focus while other items are blurred in the background.  In like fashion, the Grumbler needs to strive to put problems in the blurred and hazy background, contrasted with the crisp, clear precision of truth in the foreground. 

  • Grumbling is the blindness to all we should have to bear.

The Grumbler has also become blind to mercy.  Mercy means there is so much we deserve but have been spared from.  The problems the Grumbler sees are only a fraction of what he deserves.  Stated straightforwardly, the Grumbler deserves hell.  The Grumbler has become blind to the weight of his sin and the holiness of God.  When you forget the horror of what you should have, you become callused to the glories you do have.   What we do have in Christ is not just “not-hell”, it is not even just average pleasures, but instead we have the certain hope of eternal glory.  Grumbling doesn’t make sense with such a possession. 

  • Grumbling is the blindness to its reproach upon God

Grumbling is not just statements about the problems in view, it is also unspoken statements about God.  God is not enough for the Grumbler.  Grumbling is like worry in this way.   Worry is what you do when you think God is not able to work all things for good.  Grumbling is what you do when you think God is not glorious enough to satisfy you in the midst of trouble.  But the reality is what the psalmist of Psalm 73 discovered.  Once the psalmist saw his problems from the godly perspective, he then said in verses 26 and 28 “besides you, I desire nothing on earth”, “God is…my portion forever”, and “the nearness of God is my good.”  If you cannot say these things, you are saying, if only with your sour attitude, that God is not enough.  The Grumbler brings reproach upon God. 

  • Grumbling is the blindness to the biblical method of complaint

Is the call to not grumble a call to look past every problem?  It is not.  There are real problems and they will stir up groans from the deepest places within us.  Should we not speak to them?  We should.  And we see this in Scripture.  The psalms are full of complaint; where the psalmist lays his issue before God.  What can we learn about this?  First, sinful grumbling is often more horizontal than vertical.  When sourness is being spread around horizontally, it usually means it is not being sent up vertically.  We are to cast our cares upon him.  Pour out your prayer before the God who can actually do something about it.  It is through prayer that you often find your way back to thankfulness and rejoicing.  But, beware you do not fall into the error of Job and start accusing God of bad decisions.  Secondly, and practically, if you are a grumbler, you are in effect mixing and obscuring the small stuff with the big stuff.  People stop listening.  It is like the boy who cried wolf.  His false cries led to a genuine cry going unheeded.  When you grumble about everything, you may not get attention for anything.  When there really is something for which you need extra help and prayer support, people may not listen because they tuned you out.  

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